100 years in Spokane: Ladies of the ill repute flee city ahead of vice crackdown

“Women of questionable character” were leaving Spokane in droves as the result of an anti-prostitution drive.

“Downtown lodging houses, which have been under the surveillance of the police, have obeyed the order literally,” said The Spokesman-Review. “Most of the women are believed to have left the city.”

The order created some controversy after the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported that it was aimed at 17 immoral houses on Trent Avenue (today’s Spokane Falls Boulevard).

One irate Trent Avenue hotel owner said this tarred all legitimate hotels on Trent. He offered to donate $50 to the Red Cross if anyone could prove there were truly 17 immoral houses on Trent Avenue.

Police chief Weir said this was all a misunderstanding, and blamed the Chronicle. He said it was “simply a canard on the part of the evening paper.” He said the order equally applied to hotels on Riverside, Sprague and every other part of the city.

From the vaudeville beat: The comic musical team billed as the Pearl Brothers and Burns earned laughs at the Hippodrome with their operatic parodies and clever characterizations.

“A man of corpulent frame did the hula dance, and a little man, who presides at the piano during the act, demonstrated vocal powers remarkably womanish.”